GSM Exhibition Space

〰️ GSM presents: Messages from the Deep in collaboration with Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee online radio dedicated to the arts
23 - 28 May 21:00 CET

GSM is a space for solo exhibitions that is defined by a time-slot and frequencies rather than a set of walls. The artists install their work in a space consisting of minutes on air. GSM is not a space specifically for artists that use sound as a medium but rather a place for transforming artists’ works into sonic encounters.

Rethinking space and audience experience, GSM brings the exhibition to whatever space the audience finds themselves in. Whether that is in a jeep on a highway, issuing from a constructors radio on a building site or via airpods on an afternoon stroll.

Founded by Helena Aðalsteinsdóttir and Ásgerður Birna Björnsdóttir in 2017, GSM’s first exhibition series was hosted by the National Radio of Iceland and the second series ‘Messages from the Deep’ is hosted by Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee, online radio.

Our thanks to:
Susan van Veen for visual support
Joakim Derlow for being our devoted presenter
Ash Walker for sound editing magic

DATE	ARTIST	EXHIBITION CLICK!	◠	↓	BIO
23.05.21	Alexandra Martens Serrano	The Immortality of the Astronomical Shell	The Immortality of the Astronomical Shell is a sound piece exploring colour as a vibrational apparition within, between and upon materiality. The shell - a metaphor for an intangible structure that is both made of and a house for a variety of reverberations plays a role in becoming the sonically translated protagonist of this piece. By manipulating the sounds assigned to colours within spoken language, the sonic particles of these words which are dubbed, distorted and rearranged to move differently in 'space' begin to create new frequencies, adapting, accenting, referencing and opening up every original to variation.		Alexandra Martens Serrano is a visual artist and researcher. Her practice explores the ways in which economies of knowledge, and subsequently the narratives they induce are configured and transmitted. Her research based practice takes the shape of associative constellations through installations composed of sculptures, drawings, word plays and sound. The work is intent on synthesizing the past, present and future, allowing them to confront each other without hierarchy and explore what it means today, to be somewhere in between, Alexandra brings forth fantastical and impossible realms into realit.
24.05.21	Á. Birna Björnsdóttir	I feel asleep	Electromagnetic waves recorded on Elektrosluch 2. Notification sounds by Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Samsung and Apple. Theremin cover by Hermigervill (Sveinbjörn Thorarensen) I feel asleep when you're inside a message it can be really hard to see what it actually means it may take some distance and some time some zooming out to actually see its forms the shape the colours the tones of meaning to fully register what lies behind the short words the vocabulary the punctuation the accompanying emoji how to keep up with the tempo of the chat when the real volume doesn't fit in the bubble like the good old iceberg only 10% present on the screen or maybe less it takes distance it takes time a message so short so casual, nonchalant written without thinking sent in a haze but heavy densest pixels 100kg each just stay inside it, maybe don't come out don't try to gather what was said just stay inside it oblivious to the 90% or maybe more		Drawn to materials which seem to exist on the verge of perception, the intangible, invisible and indiscernible play an important role in Á. Birna Björnsdóttir's work. Contrasted with the concrete, voluminous and seemingly more important, her sculptural works take shape on a broad scale of materiality. Hundreds of meters of electrical wire, digital luster, a piece of aerogel, a soft hum, blinking eyes on a carelessly placed smartphone, an apricot kernel, electromagnetic waves, a lump of lead or a missed phone call. Though deceiving by their harmless looks, Birna's works often inhabit a trickster-like character, gently poking the viewer by snapping them out of their role as audience.
25.05.21	Henny Valentino	It doesn't feel right	Henny Valentino is a visual artist investigating representations of introversion and how introverts manoeuvre in societies geared around extroverts. In his work, he creates safe havens where solitude meets the external world. His solo exhibition 'It doesn't feel right', guides you to that very specific location. A familiar voice navigates your city landscape, your living space, and the corners of your mind. On this journey, one thing is certain: you will end up exactly where you have to be.		Using installation, video and sound, Henny Valentino constructs atmospheric safe havens where solitude meets the external world. As an introvert maneuvering through societies geared around extroverts, Valentino is inspired by automotive and domestic landscapes. He sees them as an extension of the self, personalised spaces guarded by fragile glass windows, glaring in the beaming sun.
26.05.21	Mia Ghabarou	gemini mood swings	Mia Ghabarou is a composer, filmmaker and performer. In her exhibition gemini mood swings she invites the audience into a liquid structure of internal dialogues. In search for cohesion, Mia has created an ever-morphing composition, where bliss weighs in against disruption. Gentle implosions manifest in the brain and body of those who enter.		Mia Ghabarou has been composing music for theater, opera and independent performances. Her music carries a sense of theatrics as she creates immense ensemble concerts, combining music and performance. Ghabarou's praxis revolves around the 'shitty mix lifestyle', an unkindness to the future self. By staging everyday mistakes, she lets them become new exaggerated realities.
27.05.21	Okarina Iturralde N	Right at the Gate	The drawing, Right at the Gate, 2021, (a digital collage on a one-line-drawing), pictures one of the many google street view images of a neighborhood which are many gated neighborhoods distributed in one, very long, straight street* In the audio edit we start by listening to a song called 'My parents are both g00d and baaaaaad' and then we go forward to a reading from our Facebook~Events~Section, an event called '$elling everything that you need is an impecable way of not seeing what you lack'. You felt maybe you'd like to hear the song with no interruptions? See you again next time, when I'll see you. Yours, and not, Okarina ~ *(You know how unappetizing it is when google maps tells you to KEEP GOING straight and you are v gay already for like 10 years? how long google? how long will it take us?)		Okarina Iturralde N is an artist born and raised in Guayaquil-Ecuador who studied in Amsterdam and currently works and lives between Amsterdam and Guayaquil. Working often with different forms of text, conversations, facebook event descriptions and narrations she carries a multidisciplinary practice of transits in which we see life sprouting in movement, transformation and energy as is tracing different husks left behind.
28.05.21	Ólöf Bóadóttir	The Parliament in the Size of a Palm	Translating the term 'readymade' from English into Icelandic and then back again turns it into 'fabrication'. The construction of the readymade takes on the image of a miniature of the Icelandic parliament and the democratization of objects is equated to the majority rule.		Sculpture is in the forefront of Ólöf Bóadóttir's art practice though it usually has a performative aspect to it, which sometimes takes over. Inspired by fundamental philosophical theories and stories about pondering, Bóadóttir deals with existential questions through different media, but the materiality is always apparent.

ARCHIVE

GSM presents: Sequences on Frequences in collaboration with Sequences Art Festival and RÚV, The National Broadcasting Service of Iceland

DATE ARTIST EXHIBITION
*CLICK!* ~ BIO

13.10.17 Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson Friday no. 13 Styrmir rises to his feet and begins to mix colours. He finds it by far the most fun to cover from pink to blue. However, it depends on the lighting conditions how successful it is. Then people come to visit and Styrmir's bids Good Friday. Now, Styrmir will play us music on Friday the thirteenth. Tyhe work is dedicated to those of you who are up on the sofa, in the warmth and security of the home, or to those of you who are out and about. Take care, because it's Friday no. 13! Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson is a Berlin based storyteller, a performer, a dancer, an object maker, an illustrator. He has a love for the absurd, by which is meant less an obsessive passion for the ridiculous, nonsensical or the odd, than a tender and caring attitude: he takes care of the absurd, he helps it to develop, he gives it a place alongside everything else where it can be your most disturbing neighbour and your best friend.

12.10.2017 Cally Spooner On False Tears and Outsourcing On False Tears and Outsourcing is part of Spooner's long-term project of the same name, which was initiated at Vleeshal Markt, Middelburg, the Netherlands, in 2015. Considering the production of affect, the contradictions faced by hired bodies, and the dynamics of using or being used as a human resource, the project stages situations in which a heightened demand for communication drives the outsourcing of personal investment to readymade gestures and protocols. Using text, sound and choreography, Athens based artist Cally Spooner stages absurdist replays of the political, economic and media rhetoric of our time. Arriving from a training in Philosophy and landing somewhere between stable, formal compositions and living, social events, her work prods and make restless the hierarchies between those who hold power to manage bodies, language and thought, and those who do not.

11.10.17 Sara Magenheimer Slow Zoom Long Pause No Image Slow Zoom Long Pause deals directly with the relationship between image and sound, specifically the human voice. The Q and A format ostensibly breaks down language into digestible parts, but within that structure there is a lot of room for ambiguity, misinterpretation, and total disintegration of meaning altogether. Working across a range of media including video, sound, performance, sculpture, collage, and installation, New York based artist Sara Magenheimer disrupts, manipulates, and defamiliarises language with bold combinations of image and text.

10.10.17 Florence Lam My Heart in a Broken Nutshell My Heart in a Broken Nutshell is the biggest installation Florence has made so far, as it covers the whole country and deals with the strongest force in the world. Florence Lam is a Reykjavik based artist who works surrounding themes of magic, wonder, child and positive psychology.

09.10.17 Eggert Pétursson Conch (soundflower) The conch registers the sea. It contains thousands of hair cells that generate voltage as they bend in the wave motion of the liquid. Place the conch in a good place where you can use it when you need to hold the sea. Painter Eggert Pétursson concentrates entirely on the minute tundra of Iceland's seemingly barren landscape. Pétursson repeats sections of vegetation, to dizzying effect, revealing a hypnotic universe within the natural forms.